POTTSTOWN — “Weird” and “scary” were among the choice words Logan Street residents used to describe their neighbor, a Pottstown man who was taken into custody Thursday night after a police incident and standoff that lasted more than 12 hours.

Several residents said Albert J. Dudanowicz Jr., 56, whose identity Pottstown Police Chief Mark Flanders confirmed Thursday night, was a “strange” man who they weren’t surprised was the subject of the standoff with police.

Dudanowicz lived in apartment B104 of the Logan Court Apartments, which are located on Logan Street between Gay and Wilson streets. The apartment complex is comprised of four buildings; Buildings A and B are on the east of Logan Street and buildings C and D are on the west side of the street. Dudanowicz was holed up in building B for hours and allegedly shot at members of the ChesMont Emergency Response Team who had been called there.

After Dudanowicz fired shots at the officers around 2:30 Thursday afternoon, a CMERT marksman returned fire and struck Dudanowicz, officials confirmed. Dudanowicz was taken into custody by CMERT members who breached the building around 7:30 p.m. He was brought outside in a state of undress and immediately loaded into a Goodwill Ambulance before being transported to Reading Hospital and Medical Center with a gunshot wound.

Advertisement

The ordeal encircled dozens of people who live in the apartments and were evacuated from their homes, some of them escorted by the SWAT team hours after the incident started.

Police confirmed they were called to the apartments for a disturbance there around 7:30 a.m. A neighbor of Dudanowicz’s said he could hear Dudanowicz “moving around” in his apartment while police gathered outside.

The neighbor, who asked his name not be used, said he knew immediately that the police were at the apartment complex for Dudanowicz.

“We just moved in about three months ago and he lives underneath of us,” he said. “A few times we went down to the laundry to do our laundry and stuff and he kind of always gave us weird looks. One time he came and knocked on our door because we left laundry in the dryer.

“I kind of knew right away (Friday that Dudanowicz was the one police were looking for) just because of his demeanor and stuff. That was my first guess,” the neighbor said. “He kind of freaked us out a little bit, so I put a lock on the door, another lock. He was kinda scary.”

Adding to the oddity Dudanowicz’s neighbors associated with him was his apparent familiarity with guns. According to the Pennsylvania State Sportsman’s Association, a listing for Albert J. Dudanowicz of Pottstown could be found in several target shooting competition records from 2001 to 2004. Neighbors said they had heard he used to shoot trap.

The neighbor who lives in an apartment adjacent to Dudanowicz said he was asleep at the time police started to arrive at the apartments Thursday.

“I heard the cops calling ‘Albert, come out with your hands on your head.’ I didn’t believe it at first,” he said. “I got up and looked out the window ... and I saw the cops.”

Dudanowicz’s neighbor said police had been at the apartments in recent weeks for another incident involving Dudanowicz. The details of that incident were not immediately available from police, however, a search of court records indicated Dudanowicz had not been charged for that prior incident as of Friday.

The neighbor said he stayed in his apartment while the police were calling for Dudanowicz Friday and didn’t know what to do. He had to get ready to go into work, but didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he was in his apartment.

“I heard him downstairs like making noises and stuff, you think he would just walk out or something, but I guess he didn’t,” the neighbor said. “At first I was calm and I was like, alright, I have to be at work at this time, I have to leave in a half hour.” But after Dudanowicz didn’t follow commands from police, the neighbor said he started to get nervous.

“I was kind of scared to get in the shower, because I know he probably doesn’t like me... Then I was like, oh my God, if I get in the shower to get ready for work I know he probably doesn’t like me, what if he shoots up through the ceiling? I got kind of scared and I was cautious.”

The neighbor said he was one of many people in the apartments who was escorted out of the apartments by CMERT members.

“The SWAT team came in and they snuck us out,” he said. “They put us in the SWAT car and took us to the (North End) Fire” Company, where many residents stayed after they were temporarily displaced.

Although Dudanowicz’s neighbor said he wasn’t surprised that Dudanowicz was the subject of the incident Thursday, he did say he was surprised that such an incident would happen in his apartment building.

“I didn’t think it would happen” in this section of town, he said. “That’s why we moved here.”